Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Matt Scotten | Soldiers from 1313th Engineer Company (Search and Extract) extract a casualty from a...... read more read more
BUTLERVILLE, Ind. — “At the beginning of a disaster with mass casualties, the first thing you gotta do is comb through the site and clear out all the casualties that you can get out of there easily and quickly with the highest survivability,” said Ronnie J. Salee, a Noble, Okla., native and instructor from Response International Group, which is training Indiana guardsmen at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center for their certification as a Chemical, Biological, Nuclear, High-Yield Explosives Enhanced Response Force Package. “Then, you go back and look for the hard ones under the rubble.”
If the United States has learned anything from past disasters such as the bombings of the World Trade Center in 2001 and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, it would be the importance of a quick response. In the past, casualties often had to endure a gap of up to three days as a result of the nation’s ability to react to theses crises.
An Army program designed specifically to fill this gap is CERFP. To make sure Indiana is ready to handle such emergencies, the state’s first CERFP team is currently being trained.
According to Army’s Posture Statement, “The CERFPs are a key element of the Department of Defense's overall program to provide support to civil authorities in the event of an incident involving weapons of mass destruction in the United States. They are designed to fill the six- to 72-hour gap in our nation's ability to provide mass casualty patient decontamination, medical triage, and treatment and extraction from a contaminated environment.”
Currently there are 17 states with CERFPs. They include New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Colorado, California, Texas, Missouri, Florida, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington, Virginia, Ohio, Georgia, Minnesota and Nebraska. Indiana hopes to extend that list to 18.
“These soldiers have worked hard every day,” said 1st Lt. Stanly Kersys, Indianapolis native and commander for the 1313th Engineer Company (Search and Extract). “They are excited about this mission and have been studying day and night, learning how to use the new equipment, extraction techniques.”
According to Sallee, the soldiers are doing well, and he is pleased to see their attention to detail.
“These guys are making sure safety is their number one priority, while still training hard to learn the skills necessary to make a difference if the situation calls for them,” he said.
Soldiers are learning skills such as shoring, extracting casualties from confined spaces, lifting and hauling heavy structures such as slabs of concrete, and breaking large objects using heavy equipment.
“All of the training has been excellent,” said Sgt. Tony England, a Hope, Ind., native and supply sergeant for the 1313th Engineer Company. “All of these trainers have real-world experience doing this stuff. Many of them are firemen. It’s not your everyday military training.”
According to Kersys, as long as all training continues to go according to plan, Indiana’s CERFP should have its certification by August of this year.
| Date Taken: | 05.07.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 05.10.2011 21:46 |
| Story ID: | 70189 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 78 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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